Page 51 of Kai's Hunger

Miggs snorted. “You can’t figure it out?”

Fostine stared, dumbfounded.

Miggs nudged his chin toward our alpha. “I’m thinking she’s not just any old waitress to him.”

“His mate?” Fostine inquired, her gaze straying toward Tessa. We all watched as Wyatt gently placed Tessa into the backseat of the car, then slid in beside her and slammed the door shut. “Geez, our house is going to get mighty crowded.”

I didn’t care about the house. The only thing that mattered was Lily. I needed to get to her, but there were zero leads. The horrors she would endure at the hands of Patterson turned my stomach. I started toward the diner again, but Fostine stopped me with a hand on my shoulder. I turned and glared. “What?”

“There isn’t much you can do here.”

“Maybe, maybe not.” I pointed toward the waiting car. “Let me know if Tessa has any information that could help.”

She nodded. “Good luck, brother.”

Once she was gone, I went back into the diner. There had to be something. Anything. I couldn’t lose her.

****

Lily

“Oh, God,” I groaned, blinking to bring the room into focus. A prison cell? I was on a cot, covered in a grey wool blanket. A toilet in one corner and bars. The walls were cement blocks. No window. No way to tell if it was day or night. It all came back in a wave of images. The diner. Seeing Tessa go down. Men carting me off. What the hell was going on?

An imaginary axe hammered at the back of my head over and over, bringing tears to my eyes. “Kai,” I breathed out.

“What did you say?”

I stiffened. That voice, so like Kai’s, but deeper, rougher. I slowly sat up, then put my feet on the floor and stood. The room tilted like I was on a teeter-totter. I reached for the wall and steadied myself, then went to the bars. “Who are you?” I called out, unable to see anyone. Only a hallway. I craned my neck and spotted a metal door at the far right end.

“You know my son,” the voice stated. “I can smell him on you.”

Son? “Are you ... are you Kai’s father?”

Silence met me. The other man was suspicious of me.

“Kai saved me. I was in a car wreck and he pulled me out, got me medical help.”

“Creeg?”

Now I was the suspicious one. What if it wasn’t their father? What if it was a trick to pry information out of me? “What is your name?”

“Calm yourself. I mean you no harm.”

“I’m in a cage. Hard to be calm under the circumstances.”

“Yeah, I know,” he grunted. “I’m Lucian Ravenbriar.”

“You could just be telling me that to get me to confide in you.”

“Smart woman,” he mused. “I can understand what Kai sees in you.”

“Tell me something only Lucian Ravenbriar would know.”

A beat of silence filled the area. Just when I thought he wouldn’t answer, the mystery man said, “Did Kai tell you how he got the chipped tooth?”

“He did,” I answered, still suspicious.

“Fighting with Wyatt. He fell face first, landing on a rock sticking out of the ground.”

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